Truth Behind Lies
by LianatheWingedDrummer16
Summary: When Norton manages to subdue Isaac and Carver after the Nexus, he heads back to Ellie hoping for less drama. But more drama, especially having his real motives questioned, is exactly what he gets.
1. Chapter 1

**I'd like to thank Ragnarok666 for the idea behind this story. I owe you one!**

**This fiction will also include some Isaac and Ellie romance, because my life just kind of revolves around that. **

NORTON POV

He'd never been so sure that he wanted to kill Clarke.

The gun was in his hand, the laser sights were trained on Clarke's chest, and all he had to do was pull the trigger.

Norton's heart was pounding in time with the fury flooding through his body. Everything had gone wrong - he, along with all the others with the exclusion of Clarke, would have been able to go home if Clarke hadn't gone and messed it all up.

And now, there was no ship for them to be able to leave the damned planet on.

He only wanted to be able to go home; was that so bad? He only wished to have Ellie for the remainder of his life; that surely wasn't a crime, was it?

The whole point of Norton coming to Tau Volantis was for him to be able to repair his flawed relationship with Ellie. He hadn't truly come to end the Necromorph threat; he had gone to find her and come back home with her.

But of course, Clarke's insufferable stubbornness had screwed them all. So instead of being able to return to Earth and maybe have a normal life, they would be stuck on the planet for God-knows-how-long when Norton really just wanted to get the hell off and never have to go through anything like it again.

It was now or never. Clarke had his own gun out in self-defense, aiming at him, and obviously only one of them would come out of it alive.

With his mind and body screaming at him to do it, Norton pulled the trigger.

The shot embedded itself in Clarke's chest, near his lower ribs, and the engineer collapsed to the ground with a loud cry of pain.

Off to the side, Carver stared at Clarke as he went limp, dead for certain, then reached for his own weapon. Norton immediately aimed at him, daring the sergeant to fire.

Carver held up his own gun, trained on his superior, and the two stared at each other, locked in a battle of wills.

"You won't do it," Norton muttered, just loud enough for his lower to hear. "I'm your captain. You won't shoot me."

Carver hesitated, shifting his grip on the gun, and spat, "You may higher ranked than I am, but it was wrong for you to shoot him. He didn't do anything wrong. I won't watch while you walk away."

"Then don't," Norton replied, and tightened his fingers on the weapon. "Sorry, man, but I gotta tie up loose ends."

Then he aimed for Carver's stomach and fired, effectively puncturing the EarthGov sergeant's suit and rendering him unmoving as he fell to the ground, blood staining the white ice.

Norton lowered his gun, gazing for a moment at the two men laying on the ground and the blood around them. Shock overcame him for a moment, his mind whispering, 'What's Ellie going to say?'

The mission had required Clarke to be successful, after all. Without him, there was no point in lingering around. They would be forced to admit that the mission had failed, and most likely Ellie would want to head home if it was all over.

But wasn't that what Norton wanted? Hadn't he just hoped for a chance to go home all this time?

His chance was here, and he sure as hell was going to take it.

A small smile crept over his face as he imagined being able to have a good, normal relationship with Ellie, one untouched by any jealous last-year's-model on the outside. With Clarke gone, there was really no need to worry about a potential threat.

And Ellie...

He would tell her that after the confrontation with Danik, the Nexus had gotten both Clarke and Carver, but neither of them had gotten out alive. It would likely soothe her suspicions and nobody would be the wiser.

'Yeah, that'll work... I'll just tell her that.'

He assumed that neither Clarke nor Carver was alive, seeing as how they weren't moving even a little. There was no need to check their RIGs; Norton had full confidence in his aim and the weapon he held.

"Sayonara, bastards," he whispered, giving them a mock salute.

Then he pulled up the hood of his blue snowsuit, shivering as the cold wind blew small chips of ice into his face, and walked away.

**Well, I know this is practically the shortest chapter I've ever written, but I hope you like it. **

**Please, do review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry this chapter took longer than usual. I have to switch between this one and Unfinished Business, and the bulk of my time was spent on Unfinished Business. **

ISAAC POV

The searing pain in his side, coupled with the excruciating feeling of being burned, was enough to rouse him from his stupor.

The blurry world around him shifted as he raised himself to a forearm, and he blinked several times to try and clear his vision.

A short distance away, Carver rolled over, groaning. The ice around him was uneven and red, like the ice had been diluted by blood and was slowly melting.

Isaac slumped back down to laying on the ground, unable to keep himself up for much longer. "Son of a bitch..."

NORTON POV

The trek through the snow back to where Ellie and Santos were setting up the climbing gear was long, but it was worth it. As he neared the cliff face, he lowered his hood and approached Ellie with a sort of smile on his face.

She looked up when she heard the sound of the ice and snow crunching under his boots, and stood, relief evident in her eyes. "Robert," she breathed as he walked closer, accepting the embrace he gave her. "You made it!"

"Yeah, sure did," he answered. His heart started beating slightly faster as he noticed that Ellie was looking around, as if she was looking for something.

Or someone.

"Robert," Ellie asked quietly, the smile still on her lips, "where's Isaac? And Carver?"

Norton hesitated, placing a hand on her shoulder as he knew she was going to be rather upset. Ellie's smile faded as she realized what he was getting at.

Norton cleared his throat and said quietly, "He's gone, Ellie. They're both gone."

Ellie took a step back, her eyes widening with shock and horror, and she gazed at the ground. "No," she whispered. "Oh, God, no. Isaac..."

Santos stopped from where she was setting it up on the ground and quietly walked over to the pair, her eyes questioning. "Robert, what's going on?"

He turned to the researcher and repeated, "Clarke and Carver. They're gone."

Santos seemed to crumple on the outside, her frame visibly sagging and her face contorting with sorrow and fear. "How can we possibly keep going like this?" she cried, throwing down the object she was carrying. "They're both gone, and now it's just us! I can't do this anymore!"

Ellie looked up then, and Norton was astounded and partly horrified to see tears leaking out of her eyes, spilling over and leaving streaks on her face. "How did they die?" she asked, not even bothering to wipe the tears away.

Norton swallowed the lump of clay in his throat, willing the words to come out of his mouth and seal the lie, hiding away the fact that he himself had shot them.

If he couldn't be convincing enough, everything would be messed up. He wouldn't have Santos' trust, and he wouldn't have Ellie's either. Hell, he wouldn't even have Ellie. She wouldn't want to be around him, and then the purpose of killing the engineer and his own sergeant would be lost.

Forcing the words out of his mouth, feeling their eyes on him expectantly, he choked out, "The Nexus. They got sucked into the Nexus and didn't come back out."

"Oh, God," Ellie whispered, and fresh tears dripped down her face. Norton watched one trail off of her jaw, falling and then disappearing into the snow.

Lasting for a brief moment, then vanishing. Like he hoped her grief would.

Santos turned to Ellie and placed a comforting arm on her shoulder, softly murmuring, "Come on, Ellie. Let's finish setting up the climbing gear."

In a bit of a panic, Norton stammered, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute! I thought we needed Clarke to continue with the mission!"

Ellie turned back to him, and he was surprised to see a flash of defiance in her blue and green eyes. "We needed Isaac to translate the script, triangulate the signal with the Probe Gun, and that was pretty much it," she explained, her voice cracking. Norton couldn't help but notice that she had put a lot of emphasis on Clarke's first name. "We can still continue with the mission, and I damn well intend to finish it. That's the very reason I came here, Robert. You know that."

Internally despairing, Norton backtracked and said, "Well, okay, we'll keep going. Just wanted to make sure."

"Of course we'll keep going," Ellie replied, almost snapping at him with her words. "We're heading to the research facility. We have to keep going." Her chin trembling, she turned away, Santos murmuring to her quietly, probably comforting the distraught woman.

As he stepped onto the climbing platform, hooking up the rope to his snowsuit and preparing to shoot upwards, he pondered the outcome of the situation. It wasn't at all what he had expected - weren't they supposed to be looking for a shuttle so they could return home? He hadn't thought about any other possible courses of action after the death of the two buggers, but he realized that his heart had been set on going back to Earth.

'Looks like that plan's fucked,' he thought dryly as the spearhead lodged itself in the ice and jerked him into the air. Just before he took off, however, he was able to hear Ellie cry to Santos, "We have to finish for Isaac! I won't let his sacrifice and Carver's go in vain."

Norton's stomach clenched tightly, along with his fists, and he had to pause while climbing the vertical cliff face to take a deep breath. His blood was running hot and fast in his veins; he could feel it warming his face and neck, like the time when he got too riled up by some remarks that the other EarthGov captains used to make when they found out about him and Ellie, before the government had been overthrown.

"Get a grip," he muttered to himself furiously. "Just because she's upset about it doesn't mean she still has something for him. Santos was upset too, you know that."

He let out a frustrated growl as he vigorously pulled at the line and dug his feet even harder into the ice. "Great. Now I'm talking to myself."

The rest of the strenuous climb up the ice was spent in silence, Norton clamping his mouth shut in an attempt to stem the angry phrases and thoughts flowing like water through his head. Several times, he slipped on a slicker patch of ice when he was too busy thinking about the main thorn in his side, and that just served to infuriate him even further.

When he reached the top, after disengaging the rope from his belt, he waited for Santos and Ellie, practically ready to explode with all of the anger inside of him. The impatience he was feeling was overpowering - he was the captain, not Clarke or Carver, and therefore he had more authority and his word was more important than any of their ideas. If he wanted to go home, didn't his opinion rule over all of theirs?

Why wouldn't they listen to him?

'Maybe they didn't know you actually wanted to go back home,' he reasoned, trying for the umpteenth time to calm himself down. 'Don't do anything stupid. Your relationship with Ellie is kind of at a standstill, and you really don't need to get mad at her. Just ask her what she wants to do, and if she doesn't want to go home, force her to!'

Because that would actually work really well, right? Ellie would have to see what the best decision was, Norton told himself. And once she did, she wouldn't have any problems with it.

Santos was the first to reach the top, with Ellie actually quite far behind. Norton peered over the edge, worried, and was about to ask her if she needed help when he felt Santos touch his shoulder.

He straightened up, surprised. Santos was staring at him with an inquisitive look in her eyes, and queried, "Robert, is... Is there something you're not telling us about?"

"About what?" Norton replied, stalling. In his head, he was hoping for Ellie to hurry up so they could keep moving, but she was nowhere near the top and he knew they would have to wait.

"About Isaac and Carver," Santos persisted. She frowned, and Norton found himself praying to some higher being for her not to ask any difficult questions. "It just doesn't make sense."

'Dammit!'

He turned to her, barely able to keep a lid on his agitation. "They got eaten by the Nexus and never came out, Santos. That's all there is to it. What else do you want to know?"

He was being blunt and he knew it, but the way she asked the question and the look in her eyes - well, he couldn't keep from feeling rushed and frazzled when he thought about it.

"I just don't understand why they wouldn't be able to fight it off. I mean, I know it was big, but both Isaac and Carver are tough men. Together, the beast wouldn't have provided too much resistance, especially since they have guns," Santos persisted.

To Norton's relief, Ellie hauled herself over the cliff edge and rapidly unbuckled herself from the harpoon, pulling up her orange hood to shield from the snow. "Are we going to go?" she asked roughly, gesturing to the general direction of the facility. "We still have a mountain to climb."

"Of course," Santos said quickly, grabbing her equipment. "Let's go."

Startled, Norton hung back for a moment before following them, and even then he felt rather uneasy as he saw the two women walking close together, their heads bent as if in quiet conversation.

He could only hope that there wouldn't be serious repercussions to his decision, but in his heart, he knew he'd be having problems later on. They weren't the type to let something like that go easily, and no matter how hard he tried to hide it, he knew the truth would come out eventually.

How serious the consequences would be depended on his actions.

And he knew he could not go back and change those, however much he wished he could.

**So, Norton's in a bit of a trouble spot. Right now, I'm going "Hahaha, bastard, you deserved it!" **

**Again, thanks to Ragnarok666 for the idea. **

**Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**As all Norton-bashing goes, I am just having so much fun doing this! He's such an egotistical jerk.**

**I hope you're enjoying the story so far.**

ISAAC POV

The time came when he was finally able to stand up and move around without too much pain in his lower ribs, and after using a small medpack, he decided it was time to get going and try to make it to the research facility.

He handed another medpack to Carver. "Here. It might help."

"We're gonna need surgery to get the bullets out," Carver grumbled, but accepted it nevertheless.

"If we hurry, we might be able to catch up to them," Isaac reminded him. "Grab a gun and we'll go."

However, Isaac soon discovered that the only weapons they had left were the Probe Gun and a submachine gun that didn't do much damage, according to Carver. "Damn it. Norton must have taken our guns."

"I still can't believe he betrayed us," Carver muttered. "I thought he was on our side."

"I know. He made a deal with the person he was trying to defeat," Isaac said. "But why, when he knew that?"

"Don't ask me how his brain works. Now let's get going."

After a moment, Isaac set off with Carver, through the wind blowing ice and snow that had picked up since the last time he'd been conscious.

He just hoped that Ellie would believe what he had to say.

SANTOS POV

"I really don't think Robert is telling us the truth," she insisted, the hood of her snowsuit somewhat muffling her words.

She stared ahead into the white expanse of snow and ice and rock that separated them from the facility, and tried to imagine Isaac and Carver actually getting eaten by the Nexus.

The image wouldn't come to mind. She knew just how capable both Isaac and Norton were, and the thought of both of them not being able to kill the Nexus, as big as it was, seemed a little too far-fetched for her to believe. They had weapons, they were calm in the face of danger, and Santos really couldn't force herself to believe that they were gone.

Ellie sniffled a little and murmured, "I don't think so either. But I just - I just don't want Isaac to get hurt."

"I don't really think he is," Santos remarked. "You know how tough he is. He can survive situations that most other men wouldn't be able to live through; you said so yourself." She paused, thinking. "How're things between you and Isaac anyways? I know he doesn't seem to get along well with Norton."

Ellie seemed caught off guard a little bit. "It's, uh, it's complicated."

"Hmph."

They continued to walk in silence as they made their way to the facility, Santos still thinking about any possible way the two men might have been killed. She finally came to the conclusion that it was highly improbable for them to have been killed by the Nexus.

"But why would Norton have a reason to hide anything from us?" she murmured aloud.

"What?"

"Oh, I was just wondering... Why would Norton want to keep us in the dark? We both know that he's not telling us the whole story, and I think that he knows we know too."

"I don't know," Ellie sighed. "God, there's a lot of things we don't know. Robert's been acting so strange lately. I feel like he's doing a lot of suspicious things, but..."

"You don't want to believe he is," Santos stated.

"Exactly."

"You would've thought that he did something awful and didn't want us to know about it," Ellie commented. "All this secrecy... Why go to all the trouble?"

"I don't know. But when I was talking to him, after we got up the cliff face, he seemed so edgy, especially when I told him I didn't understand anything about it. He spoke rather bluntly, too, and he said that the only thing I needed to know was that they were killed by the Nexus." Santos paused thoughtfully. "You know, sometimes I think Robert has too much of an ego. He tends to order people around a lot."

Ellie said, her voice still slightly congested as if she still had a lump in her throat, "Well, the only thing I do know is that we have to get to the facility. Once we're there, we can try to sort things out."

Santos nodded, and the two of them fell silent as they continued on their way, Norton trailing behind.

NORTON POV

Time seemed to pass by much too quickly for his liking. They neared the facility with every step, and Norton had a gut feeling that the inevitable questioning would begin as soon as they set down their equipment. He hadn't exactly been able to come up with another alibi, even though he was desperate to think of something else that could help him out of the situation and not screw up his relationship with Ellie even more.

He nervously gripped the plasma cutter that he had lifted from Clarke's corpse as they approached the last stations of climbing equipment before the facility. The plasma cutter had been his best bet for surviving the Necromorphs until he found Ellie, and he knew it would be very useful even beyond that. Norton had seen how Clarke and Carver used the weapon in action, and his thinking was that it was the weapon that helped them face off against the undead and survive simply because it was so versatile.

As he once again began scaling the last ice cliff, his thoughts wandered to Danik and his men, and he realized that now, none of them would be able to go home on a ship that Danik would provide. The Unitologist leader had nearly killed him, so that meant he didn't honor their deal anymore, and his men wouldn't hesitate to shoot at them.

'Well, shit. That's just something else I'll have to hide from Ellie.'

The little voice inside him was telling him that there wasn't a hope for him, that both Ellie and Santos were too smart to believe him, but he ground his teeth and pressed on, digging his heels into the snow and continuing upwards.

The way Ellie had reacted was still a bit disturbing to him. Everyone who was on the team, even Clarke, knew that he and Ellie were dating, and Ellie should have known that the best. Sure, she had once been romantically involved with Clarke, but that didn't warrant how upset she was over his death.

Some things were better left unexplored, Norton decided. Hopefully, Ellie would feel the same way about the Nexus incident and the way he was acting.

He finally reached the top, his breath coming heavily and his heart pounding from the exertion. While he unhooked himself from the support line, he gazed up at the huge research facility, the large buildings mounted atop the cliff. Ellie and Santos joined him shortly, neither of them apparently willing to speak with Norton just yet, and they set off towards the long ladder that they needed to climb to enter the area.

A chill ran down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold as he realized that the two women had more than likely been conferring about Clarke and Carver's death. The suspicious glances they constantly sent his way were more than enough to make his stomach twist with apprehension, as did the fact that they neglected to include him in their whispered conversations.

Norton pushed down his fear and held his head up high, trying to display confidence and calm as opposed to what he felt was turning his innards into braids.

However, that suave mask disappeared as soon as they entered the research facility where the person - Rosaline, was it? No, Rosetta - was being housed. Ellie and Santos set down their equipment, and Norton wanted to run away and not come back for a while when he heard Ellie speak.

"Norton, can we speak to you for a moment?"

**Aaaand they've finally picked up on his bastard-ly ways! **

**Please review. It keeps me motivated! **

**And trust me, you don't want me to not be motivated. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Just so you know, this story won't be quite as long as Unfinished Business. I wrap it up within the next three chapters at most. **

**I hope you're enjoying it, because I am!**

**Also, I'd just like to say that most of the credit for this story goes to Ragnarok666 because he gives me the ideas and I simply write them down and add little bits of Isaac and Ellie fluff. Thanks!**

NORTON POV

He swallowed nervously as Ellie said quietly, "Robert, Santos and I have been talking, and we decided... You don't seem like you've been telling us the truth. If there's anything we need to know that you're not telling us, please, just tell us now. Things will be better that way."

Norton fought the urge to say, "No, they won't!" Instead, he took a deep breath and said as calmly as he could, "Listen, I don't know why you guys would be thinking that, but now is not the time to be accusing me of anything. I admit I might have been acting suspicious, but we have to work together right now so we can just start on the mission and actually get something done."

Norton had to admit, even to himself, that his voice sounded pretty calm and the speech seemed fairly convincing. With a bit of luck, they would believe him and stop questioning him about Clarke and Carver. Both Ellie and Santos knew that the most important thing at the moment was to get started on locating the Machine, and to do that, they all needed to be unified and not tearing at each others' throats.

And Norton was the captain of the last EarthGov battalion. Anything he said went, and if anybody questioned his motives, it would be like mutiny - he would be able to take them down for rebelling against him. It was a given that you weren't supposed to question your superior. He was the one in control here, he was the one who was running the whole thing. They didn't have the right to ask him anything and expect him to answer.

He turned away just as Ellie exchanged a glance with Santos that clearly said, "Whatever helps him sleep at night," and the two women began walking up to the control room of the lab.

Norton moved closer to the fragments, encased in glass or ice or whatever the hell it was, inside the research machine. Pointing to a slide, he asked Ellie, "Hey, what are these?"

Ellie didn't answer for a moment as she set up beside the control panel, but she answered, "Those are, uh, pieces of Rosetta... Looks like they cut her into pieces! That's disgusting."

Norton made a face, but more at the coldness of her voice - indicating she was still upset with Clarke's situation - than the mention of a cut-up person. "But why?"

It was Santos this time who answered. "Back in the days of the Sovereign Colonies, when all of the members of the colonies had to be killed, Dr. Earl Serrano told the rest of his scientific research team to hide Rosetta so the information from her wouldn't be lost forever. I think they cut her remains into pieces and scattered them across the facility to make it harder for the soldiers to find them."

"So we have to find them all?" Ellie asked, and Norton groaned internally as he realized where this was heading.

"Yes, I suppose," Santos replied. "We need them all to get the data - it's useless otherwise. She's missing pieces, and we need all of them for the machine to work."

There was a brief pause, and then Ellie said, "Well, I guess we'll just have to find them." She turned to Norton then, and he was surprised to see her readying her gun. "Coming, Norton? I'd like to go and retrieve them as soon as possible."

Norton sputtered for a moment, but quickly recovered and forced his voice to be smooth. "Uh, I'm not so sure about that - maybe I'll stay here with Santos." It came out as a question. "Y'know, since I'm the captain and all, maybe I should just stay safe for now."

Ellie snorted, irritation clear in her flashing eyes. "Well, fine. I guess I'll just go by myself, if you think you're so important."

Norton knew she was frustrated with his lack of participation in the mission, but he couldn't deny that he was afraid of what was out there. It was a definite possibility that there would be more frozen Necromorphs and more of Danik's men out there in the other buildings of the facility, and Norton didn't want to die before he could see the mission through.

He waited, fidgeting, as Ellie muttered something to Santos. Her words were inaudible to his ears, but he could tell from the hard set of her mouth that she was fairly pissed off at him.

But there was no reason for her to be, right? He had to keep himself safe - he was an important person, the most important out of the entire group of them. They were all expendables, even Ellie (although he preferred for her to be with him and alive), but it was imperative that he was safe. Ellie would surely understand that; she did care about him, after all.

Soon enough, Ellie was heading out the door, and Norton frantically stopped her, saying, "Ellie, wait!"

The look on her face was one of cold irritation. "Hmm?"

"I love you," he blurted, desperate for her to maybe say it back and put his raging thoughts to rest.

Ellie was silent for a moment, and then she turned away, tossing back over her shoulder, "I know."

"And be careful."

She didn't reply to that one, opening the door and walking away into the darkness, weapon in hand.

After the door closed, Norton let his gaze, shadowed as it was by sadness and confusion, fall to the ground. 'Will I ever fix things with Ellie?' he wondered, and then gritted his teeth, deciding to try and take his mind off of things as he had no answer to that particular question.

Slowly, he ambled off to the control room where Santos was waiting. He entered the room silently, watching her pore over some of the paper files she'd picked up. "What's that?" he asked, leaning against the table with his arm extended.

Santos looked up. "Oh, nothing, just some interesting scientific notes that I picked up from Central Command." She paused, apparently thinking, and Norton moved away as he realized she'd probably ask about Clarke and Carver again.

He stopped in his tracks as soon as he heard Santos speak. "I think you should have gone with Ellie," the researcher said, and he clenched his fists. "She shouldn't be out there by herself."

"Ellie wanted to come on this mission," Norton said, his voice sounding mildly aggravated. "If she wanted to go so badly, she should be doing the work too."

Santos completely abandoned her papers to stare at him, the expression on her face one of disbelief. "Are you kidding me right now, Norton? You said you wanted to come on this mission. You said you were the one controlling it! I know you might think that because you're so important, you're not going to have to risk your life for anything, but right now, you need to swallow your goddamn pride and actually help us out if you want to get anywhere with this."

Norton remained silent, glaring at the Marker specialist that he had just been cowed by. Santos stared levelly back, narrowing her eyes as she was clearly unwilling to be beaten down. "I know you care about her, Norton," she added quietly when he didn't speak. "Why not let her know?"

He sighed painfully, trying not to let his emotions show. "She knows, Santos, but we're at a standstill."

"Then go after her! Norton, you can't just let things go. Are you really that type of person?"

He looked away just as she asked that last question, and she let out a disapproving sigh. "For God's sake, you are an EarthGov soldier! This isn't how the captain of the last battalion should act! You knew the risks and you came on this mission anyways, so be a man and get out there!"

"But..."

"Damn it, Norton, I'm not your mother, but if you lose Ellie to someone else, at least you'll know why."

He couldn't help but think of Clarke when Santos mentioned that someone, then nearly slapped himself for being such an idiot. 'That's bullshit,' he thought. 'There's no way either of them could have survived. Even if she did hug him and stuff... And leave that video log for him... Doesn't mean anything.' His thoughts weren't connecting very well due to stress, and he wasn't sure of anything anymore.

There were too many thorns in Norton's side for him to count. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't even think without getting stabbed to death. The one that really needed to come out was the issue of keeping the truth about Clarke and Carver's deaths a secret. It was mentally taxing, and he wasn't sure how long he could keep it up. If he so much as slipped a tiny bit and maybe let it out that they would have to wait for the rest of their crew, both Ellie and Santos, as smart as they were, would know he was lying. They were already onto him - he'd been rather open about it for the past several hours, and it was of the utmost importance that he keep on his guard.

Norton moved away from Santos, seeing that she didn't want to talk anymore, and went back to where he'd set his gun down. Even if he didn't have that much experience fighting Necromorphs, he would give it a go - it would be worth it to gain back Ellie's trust and her affection.

He was nearly out the door when Santos called to him, "Norton, where are you going?"

He turned back to the researcher. "Finding the other pieces."

"Hmph."

The darkness swallowed him as he exited the facility, and his throat just about closed when he realized that he would have to go running around inside two hundred-year-old facilities, more than likely swarming with Necromorphs, looking for pieces of Rosetta in the dark.

He wondered how Clarke had managed to survive something like the Sprawl or the Ishimura, where he was probably the only survivor fighting through thousands of the undead. Ellie had only mentioned it in passing, had never explained in detail how the engineer had destroyed the Markers or anything like that. Norton only just realized, before he'd seen Clarke fight, that he had kind of assumed that the engineer had encountered minimal resistance and had not actually been as tough as everybody else had thought. He didn't know how much experience in Necromorph-fighting Clarke had, which brought up the problem that if Ellie knew how much experience he had, she was liable to not believe his story about how Clarke and Carver had died.

'Fuck!'

Norton decided to stop thinking about all the loopholes in his life. It was making him depressed, and the more important thing at the moment was for him to contact Ellie.

He opened up the RIGlink. "Ellie? You there?"

There was nothing but static for a second, but soon enough, she answered, "Robert? Is that you?"

"Yeah. Listen, I'm sorry-"

Ellie cut him off rather brusquely. "It's fine. What do you want?"

Norton was taken aback by her tone, but kept going. "Uh, I just wanted to let you know that I'm gonna help you find the pieces. Of Rosetta."

Ellie was silent for a moment. "Well, uh, okay. I've already sent one to Santos - just look for the others."

"Okay."

Ellie ended the transmission on her end, and Norton was forced to accept that she was still fairly pissed off at him, and this time it would take her a while to come around.

Sighing, which had become ever more frequent the more time he spent on the mission, he hefted his gun up and continued through the hallways to retrieve the other fragments of Rosetta.

And maybe, just maybe, Ellie would come around in time.

ISAAC POV

He heaved himself over the edge of the cliff with a loud grunt, nearly falling into the snow as he detached the line from his belt. The buildings of the research facility loomed over him, and he took a moment to gaze at them as he waited for Carver.

The climb up the mountain had been a real pain in the ass - their gunshot wounds had given them a lot of trouble, as well as the fact that they kept getting attacked by the damn Necromorphs with only the Probe Gun and the submachine gun to help them not get cut into pieces.

Carver pulled himself up the cliff, shaking his head as he looked back at the lifts. "That was not a fun climb," he muttered, and Isaac rolled his eyes.

"Glad it's over, though."

"Yeah. Hey, do you think Norton tried to keep his betrayal a secret?"

"Well, yeah. I don't think he wanted to get his ass kicked out, especially not by Ellie. I think he really does care about her, y'know."

"Obviously. But I wonder if Ellie and Santos knew something was up - they're pretty smart, and they both know that we're pretty capable when it comes to fighting Necromorphs."

"Huh. Only one way to find out," Isaac replied decisively. "Let's go."

Carver nodded, and they continued toward the facility, Isaac leading the way.

He spotted a long ladder that appeared to lead up to the facility entrance, and pointed to it. "Hey. Looks like it leads to the entrance."

"Well, let's go!"

After a moment of hesitation, Isaac began climbing the ladder, the ascent made painfully slow by his bullet wound. Behind him, Carver started climbing, and Isaac felt the ladder vibrating ominously. He clenched his jaw and continued upward, trying to ignore the feeling of foreboding that was settled in his gut.

When he was about three-quarters of the way up, the ladder began creaking and shifting so that he could actually feel it. Realizing what was about to happen, he increased his pace and Carver followed, the ladder shaking with renewed intensity as the two men hurried to get to the top.

The ladder snapped just as Isaac and Carver hit the top, and they watched the ladder fall to the ground. "Damn. I'm glad we weren't on that."

"Same," Carver muttered.

They turned and headed into the facility, keeping their guns at the ready in case there were some unfriendly beings still in there. Isaac used his Locator and it pointed him to a door, the familiar blue "Unlocked" sign projected over it.

Isaac glanced at Carver, who nodded.

Then he opened the door.

**I'm sorry to say this, but as you all know, it's nearing the end of the school year, which means the dreaded finals! That also means less frequent updates or even a hiatus because of the increased amount of schoolwork and studying that I have to do, because I don't want to fail high school. **

**Anyways, if I don't update for a while, don't freak out - I will never give up on Isaac and Ellie, ever. Eventually, my stories will be updated; it's simply a matter of when. **

**Thanks, you guys! Review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to all that reviewed and favorited - I hope you're enjoying the ride so far!**

NORTON POV

Shaking with fear, he slumped against the wall and slid down it to where he was practically curled up in a ball, his gun held limply in his hand.

Fighting against Necromorphs while in the company of his team was scary, but he hadn't realized just how petrifying running solo and having to check around the corner every five seconds was.

This time, he didn't have the luxury of knowing that his teammates had his back.

He was fucking creeping around alone and in the dark, being attacked by various Necromorphs while looking for those goddamned pieces of Rosetta with just the plasma cutter in his hand.

Every noise made him jump, every flickering shadow made him want to run back to the control room and hang around someone that knew how to fight as well.

He just about felt sick with fear because he knew that he was the only one in the building. Finding someone else would require going back through the facility - alone, of course, and either trying to track down Ellie or return to Santos.

The problem with coming back to Santos was that she would inevitably start questioning him right then, and he didn't want to go through it if it was at all avoidable. Something would happen - he'd slip, or she'd figure it out considering that she was pretty smart, and then it would be all over.

So, for the moment, he was stuck with hunting down the fragments.

He hadn't managed to find the one in his building yet, much less send it back due to the crippling fear that was overtaking him. Fleetingly, he wondered how in the world a simple engineer could have managed to survive Aegis VII and the Sprawl by himself - there really hadn't been anyone else to help him, had there?

Besides Ellie, anyways. She had never talked about the events of the Sprawl with him, and Norton was glad as it was not to bring up her old boyfriend.

Speaking of Ellie...

Norton hadn't contacted her since he had told her he would help with finding the pieces of Rosetta, knowing that she was still upset and probably suspicious about his explanation. But he wanted some company right then, and he couldn't think of anything else to do besides talk to his girlfriend.

He opened up the RIGlink and called, "Ellie?"

She didn't answer for a moment but he was able to hear her breathing. "Yes?"

'It's better than what she could have said,' he reasoned with himself, feeling considerably heartened. "I, uh - how's it going on your end?"

There was a short pause. "It's going fine," Ellie eventually replied. "What about you?"

"It's - it's going well," Norton stammered. "I just wanted some company for the moment. Just to distract me, y'know?"

"Okay," Ellie said, sounding almost surprised. "Um, what did you want to talk about?"

'Anything!' his mind screamed, but Norton managed to keep his anxiety under control and casually said, "Well, anything you wanted to."

"All right," Ellie responded, her voice bemused.

There was silence as Norton finally managed to gather the courage to peek around the corner and Ellie probably decided on something she wanted to discuss.

Unfortunately, her topic of choice nearly made him start swearing furiously. Ellie asked, her voice quiet with trepidation, "Robert, do you think... Do you think there's a possibility that Isaac and Carver survived the Nexus?"

Norton gritted his teeth - they would be nothing more than stumps if he kept it up - and tightened his grip on the gun as he frantically thought of something to say.

If he said no, Ellie would more than likely think that he wanted nothing more than for the two men to be dead, and then she would start up again with the accusations. She'd want to know why he kept insisting that they were gone, and then he'd be in even more of a tight spot.

Painfully aware of the fact that Ellie was waiting for an answer, he pretended to be thinking - how lucky that she couldn't see his face - and said, "Hmm. I don't know, it's weird to think about."

The more he thought about it, even as he walked along the desolate halls, the more he realized that it was best just to agree with whatever she was thinking. It would spare him more trouble and probably get her back to trusting him again, and Norton wanted that the most out of the whole situation.

Ellie persisted, "I mean, there's a possibility you didn't see them come out."

"Yeah," Norton agreed, feeling less worried now that they were actually calmly discussing something. "I guess you're right."

He only wished that they were talking about something else. Clarke seemed to be Ellie's favorite topic of late, and that disturbed him.

But then again, wouldn't the fact that your current romantic interest was concerned for her ex-boyfriend be disturbing to anyone?

He focused on Ellie's next words as he rounded the corner, trying to stay calm so he could retrieve the next piece of Rosetta. "If you left before you saw any sign of life from them, you wouldn't have known they were dead," Ellie continued. "But if they came out much later, there's a chance they might still be alive!"

"Definitely," Norton said. "They could still be out there."

But there was a terrible sinking feeling in his stomach. He felt the seeds of suspicion taking root as he realized, despite the fact that he'd shot them in each in the torso, that they could actually be heading for the facility at that moment.

The last thing he wanted was more doubt and apprehension inside his head, but he had no choice but to face the facts: he hadn't actually shot them at point-blank range in the head or directly to the heart. They would have been injured, but alive.

"Hopefully they'll find us," Ellie said, her voice brightening. "They do know that we were headed to the facility - we might see them here at some point!"

"Yeah," Norton mumbled. Forcing himself to sound more optimistic and not at all like he wished they were dead, he said, "I think we should just wait it out then."

"Of course," Ellie said. "Well, I'm going to head back to the control room. I'll see you later."

He had no qualms about ending the link - he had something much more important to do.

The only thing that was possibly keeping him out of hot water was the fact that he had stolen Clarke and Carver's guns, leaving them with virtually nothing to defend themselves with. If they didn't have enough ammo, or if their wounds were too much for them to deal with, it was possible that they would be killed by Necromorphs before they had a chance to get to the research station.

But he decided that he would block Clarke's RIG transmissions, just in case the stubborn bastard tried to contact Ellie. If that happened, Norton would be the only one to receive the transmissions, and then maybe he could figure out where the two of them were and get rid of them for good before shit hit the fan.

Thankfully, he discovered that the piece of Rosetta he'd been searching for was in the next room, with none of the damn undead around, and he quickly moved to send it back to Santos so he could get to work on jamming Clarke's signal.

Quickly, he notified Santos over the RIGlink, "Got the piece and it's heading your way." He didn't wait for her to answer, ending the link and finally opening up his RIG menu so he could prevent Clarke from contacting Ellie.

A few minutes later, the deed was done. Norton had managed to set up the engineer's transmission so that every single transmission Clarke sent would only go to him and not anyone else, thus preventing him from letting Ellie know the truth.

Feeling more positive about his outlook on life, he set off, walking the long distance back to the control room where Ellie and Santos were no doubt waiting for him. He even felt like smiling - it seemed as though he might get out of this alive, and if he was able to prevent the two lost men from coming back, he'd leave Tau Volantis alive.

Norton had it all worked out in his head. He'd find out where the two men where, take care of them for sure this time around, and then he'd tell Ellie that maybe they didn't make it out after all. He was sure that was something that Ellie could accept, although she'd definitely be upset, but the important thing was that the truth would be hidden forever.

He crossed the last stretch of snow and ice before he entered the main building of the facility. The door closed behind him, and he was just about to enter the control room when something happened that made his blood freeze.

The familiar hologram popped up that indicated he was receiving a transmission, but the violently red tint to it made him nervous because he knew it was from Clarke. He swallowed hard as he heard the engineer's distinctive voice come over the link. "Ellie? Ellie, are you out there?"

'Shit. So he's alive after all.'

Norton remained silent as he tried to decide what to say. He'd have to ease the engineer's suspicions somehow - not that it mattered anymore what the mutual feeling between them was, but he felt it was best to tell him why nobody was responding.

He listened to the engineer mutter to Carver, "Dammit. I don't know why she's not answering." Again, he called, "Ellie? Can you hear me?"

"No, she can't, Isaac," Norton cut in. "Actually, only I can."

There was a dead silence on the other end, and Norton found himself actually afraid of what Clarke would say now that he knew the truth. He couldn't deny the fact that had he not shot the engineer, bullets would have ended up flying if they couldn't make up their differences. They just couldn't get along, and Norton knew that the main cause of this was Clarke's former relationship with Ellie. The two of them were constantly arguing and fighting for her love, but Norton just knew that Ellie loved him more.

He nearly jumped as Clarke growled, "Norton. Why the hell are you still even alive?"

Despite his increasing heart rate, Norton calmly replied, "Because Ellie trusts me." He was trying to get under the engineer's skin, make him angry so he could perhaps get rid of him if it came to a face-to-face confrontation.

"You fucking betrayed us!" Clarke yelled. "You made a deal with Danik, the nutcase Unitologist! Why would you do that? He's our enemy, in case you hadn't noticed!"

Norton chuckled. "There are some things you don't understand and may never understand," he told him. "I had to do what I had to do."

"Including going back on your word, making a deal with someone we've been fighting against for weeks?" Clarke snapped. "Is that how low you've sunk?"

Despite himself, Norton couldn't help but be a bit angered by his words. He spat, "Well, why don't you try and get off this planet when all you've got is a ragtag group?"

"I have, in case you forgot," Clarke retorted. "I was able to do it without betraying my friends."

"Doesn't matter," Norton said brusquely. "I'm afraid I can't let you and Carver let anything slip."

"You'll never get us. I'll find Ellie, and when I tell her about it, it's gonna be all over for you, Norton," Clarke said, his voice dangerously low.

Norton couldn't help it. He laughed, "You seriously think that? I'm the captain, Clarke. You're just an engineer. Why would she take your word over mine? She knows I'd never lie to her."

"Stop being so full of yourself, Norton," Clarke spat, even more angry if that was even possible. "You already did, and this isn't Ellie we're talking about if she didn't ask about me or Carver."

"She doesn't care about you anymore," Norton informed him, a cruel smile pulling his lips up. "You and her are over. Get that in your head."

Clarke was silent for a moment, and Norton hoped that he was really, really pissed off, just because he absolutely hated the engineer. Finally, Clarke asked, "Where are you? You and I need to settle this right now."

"Good luck finding me," Norton taunted.

He'd stay out of the engineer's way, make the two men come after him to hopefully prevent them from reaching Ellie or Santos in the control room. If he could get them somewhere he could see them but they couldn't come near him, he'd hit them each with a few shots from the plasma cutter and be done with the whole thing.

Briefly, he wondered how Clarke and Carver had managed to survive without the essential weapon. He had thought that it was the weapon that had allowed them to be effective in killing the Necromorphs, but it looked like that assumption was wrong - they had only needed a gun to keep moving. It was their innate skill that aided their survival.

He had underestimated both of them. But he wouldn't make that mistake again. This time, he'd be the one pulling all the strings, and he damn well didn't intend to let Carver or Clarke mess everything up.

ISAAC POV

He turned to Carver when Norton ended the transmission, still fuming with barely suppressed rage. "Shit. I can't believe he'd do that."

"How many times have we said that now?" Carver wondered dryly.

Isaac rolled his eyes and opened up his RIG menu. "If I can get a lock on his signal," he muttered, "I can track him down."

"Don't!" Carver snapped, and Isaac turned to him, surprised. "It's what he wants, Isaac. He wants you to come after him so he can get rid of you! It's not worth it. We should just try to find Ellie and Santos."

Isaac clenched his jaw, trying to keep his anger under control. The fury he was feeling was screaming at him to follow the deceptive captain and take care of business, but he forced himself to think rationally. If he gave Norton an excuse to attack him, he might come out of it alive, but Ellie wouldn't believe him if he tried to tell her the truth. The only thing to do was to try and find them.

Reluctantly, he said, "Fine, I see your point. But how're we going to find them if I can't contact them?"

Carver considered it for a moment, then said, "Y'know, I don't know if he tried to block my signal or just yours."

Isaac's eyes widened, and he felt a bit of hope as he contemplated the idea. "It's worth a shot," he decided. "Why don't you try it?"

Carver actually grinned. "I hope we're right," he said, opening up the link.

NORTON POV

He had no clue why they weren't coming after him. Clarke's temper had obviously been pretty heated up when he'd ended the transmission, so he didn't understand why the engineer and the EarthGov sergeant weren't tracking him down at that moment.

Norton had been pretty sure his plan would work, but now, he wasn't sure about anything.

He was startled when the holodisplay on his RIG popped up, and was even more surprised to see that it was blue, which meant it was just a regular transmission.

Hopefully it was Ellie.

But his heart stuttered and nearly stopped thumping entirely when he heard who was speaking, his blood turning to icy slush in his veins.

Absolutely horrified, he listened to the EarthGov sergeant call over the radio, "Ellie? Santos? Hello?"

'Oh, fuck!'

He'd forgotten to block Carver's RIG.

**Now we're really getting into it!**

**Thanks again to Ragnarok666. **

**Review - I know it's been forever since I updated this, but at least I updated!**


	6. Chapter 6

**My phone is an asshole. Just as I was about to finish the chapter up, the damn contraption decided it would be okay to delete it. And I had a lot of good ideas in there, too! I really just hope this chapter will still be as good. **

**This is a bit of a birthday present for myself, and for the Dead Space archives, since it's been so long since I updated. I apologize profusely for the lack of updates - finals, AP testing, swim championships and not enough time in general didn't make for a very good writing environment. I really hope all of you amazing readers have decided to stick around!**

SANTOS POV

She pushed the last slide of the fragments into place, brushing off her gloves as she surveyed the completed block of ice. Satisfied, she called to Ellie, "It's done!"

Ellie called back from the control booth, "Okay, looks good." She sighed quietly, and Santos found herself gravitating towards the former pilot, drawn by the sad anxiety in her voice.

The atmosphere in the control booth was palpably dark, and as Santos leaned against the doorframe she asked, "Is everything all right?"

Ellie looked up from where she'd been resting her chin on her hand, her eyes anguished. "Not really," she answered. "I'm just... I'm still worried about Isaac and Carver."

Santos pursed her lips thoughtfully. It was obvious, even if Ellie herself couldn't see it, that she still cared for the engineer. Although Santos had never had any romantic relations, dedication to her research being her main priority, she could understand how surviving the Sprawl with the engineer could make the two of them become close. Ellie had told her some things about their ordeal, like how Isaac had even sent her away on a gunship to keep her safe, and how she'd later come back for him; to Santos it spelled out a very clear romantic attachment, and it made sense that Ellie would still definitely feel something even after all this time, all the tension that this mission had produced.

Sometimes it even seemed like the crazed love triangle was all that existed in this mission. How ironic it all was - they were on a planet of ice, surrounded by deadly and very hostile Necromorphs, looking for the means to preserve the existence of humankind, and yet the convoluted relationship was what really seemed to matter. More than once Santos forgot that their main objective was to end the threat for good, not deal with a romantic problem.

Eventually, she simply said, "I'm sure they're all right," hoping to placate the distressed woman and put her mind at ease. Ellie only looked away, through the glass at the pieces of Rosetta.

Santos let her mind wander to the EarthGov sergeant. She knew that Isaac was capable - after all, he had destroyed two Markers and survived two horribly appalling scenarios - but she wasn't aware of if Carver was equally able to defend himself. He was a soldier, but that didn't necessarily mean he was good at fighting off unpredictable Necromorphs.

The brief silence that had enveloped the room was shattered when their RIGs received a transmission, the familiar aqua holograms flaring into existence before them.

Almost as if Santos' thoughts had conjured him, they heard a voice that they'd been unsure of ever hearing again. "Ellie? Santos? Hello?"

Ellie visibly jumped in her seat when she heard the sergeant speak, and then she exclaimed, "Oh my God! Carver, you're alive?!"

The soldier coughed, worrying Santos a little, but nevertheless replied, "Yeah. Took forever to freaking get here."

Santos cut in, "Sorry, we had to keep moving."

"Right."

There was a short pause before Ellie asked, voice quiet with trepidation, "Is... Is Isaac with you?"

Santos was relieved to hear the EarthGov sergeant chuckle. "Yeah. He's fine. Well, as fine as he can be with a gunshot wound."

"Shit," Ellie muttered. "Are you okay, though?"

"Not really. We both got shot."

"Can you last for a little longer?"

"We trekked up a huge mountain... I think we're gonna be fine," the sergeant replied, some of his usual snark seeping into his answer.

Santos voiced something that had been nagging at her attention. "If Isaac's all right, how come he didn't contact us?"

Carver didn't say anything for a moment, but when he did, both women were surprised to hear he sounded fairly pissed off. "Look, it's a long story. When we reach you guys, we'll explain. Where the hell are you anyways?"

Ellie said, "I'll send you the coordinates." Santos watched as she quickly typed on her holographic wrist monitor, sending them their location, and Carver said, "Good, thanks. We'll meet you there."

"We'll be here, waiting," Santos answered, and he ended the link.

The aura in the room had shifted from anxious to relieved, and Ellie smiled blindingly as she breathed, "He's alive! Oh my God, he's alive!"

Santos smirked. "I told you he'd be fine."

Now that they had received some tangible proof that the Isaac and Carver were alive, their moods had improved considerably. Santos sat down, waiting for the two men that had been lost, but had turned out to be alive after all.

NORTON POV

Breathless, fighting against that stupid stitch in his side, he hurtled around the corner, forcing his legs to carry him even faster. He needed to get to the control room as soon as possible.

He'd heard the whole exchange between Ellie, Santos, and Carver, and now he knew that they knew the two men were still alive and had directions to the lab.

How could he have been so fucking stupid? He was a moron, really - he'd let something slip because he'd underestimated his own sergeant.

Even after hearing Carver during his heated exchange with Clarke, the idea of blocking his RIG still hadn't crossed his mind. Carver had definitely been a risk, just as much of a risk to his cover as Clarke, but he hadn't thought to cut him off at all.

Of all the people to underestimate Carver, Norton should have been the last.

He knew exactly how capable and aware his fellow soldier was. He'd seen him take down Necromorphs, survive an outbreak, and deal with the realization that his family was gone, but of course he hadn't thought to take care of him as well.

And because of his stupid mistakes, Ellie would know the truth and he'd really be fucked.

Things shouldn't have turned out this way. Ellie never should have gotten attached to Clarke, Clarke and Carver never should have survived. Hell, Ellie and Clarke never should have even met.

The engineer had really been all the source of his current problems, making him doubt himself, making him angry, making him get irritated over useless bullshit.

He was so confused as to why things had happened the way they had. Confused and disappointed with the unexpected turnout of the mission, with his relationship.

Disappointed in himself, too.

He was finally starting to get it.

No matter what he did, what was left of his crew wouldn't understand his actions. Nobody could read minds - it was a given that people always judged others by their actions, not by their reasoning or the motives behind what they'd done. And since his betrayal simply seemed like something done from cowardice, he would be judged based on the fact that he had wanted to leave and sabotaged the mission for it. Nobody cared what people thought during what they did, and the only things his teammates could see were his wrongdoings. Norton's mistake had been that he believed they would understand. But of course they wouldn't.

He'd fucked up big time.

Just because he was afraid hadn't meant that he had to give up on the mission. He could have still been terrified of whatever the hell was out there - and honestly, who wouldn't have been scared? But he also could and should have kept going, believing in the mission that would save their home planet.

Essentially he had sacrificed Earth because of his fear.

And no matter how he tried to justify that, there was no way to.

Ellie sure as hell wouldn't understand his motivations. They had been at a rocky point in their relationship even before the Nexus; he could tell because she had called him by his last name instead of his first, and it filled him with a sense of panic that he seemed to be losing everything, even the one woman who had shown any interest in him.

But by God, he was not going to give up Ellie just because of some freaking engineer and a sergeant. He was the captain here, and that meant he had more weight to his words and decisions than the other two men who had simply tagged along. He'd never let it be said that Robert Norton, captain of the last EarthGov battalion, had gone down without a fight.

And just like that, his whole mentality had been changed.

He didn't give a damn about redemption. It was in the past, done with, and there was no point in wasting energy on something he couldn't fix when saving his ass and reclaiming Ellie was more important. He was done with trying to fix his wrongdoings. And besides, if he could cover them up, he wouldn't have to explain himself anyways.

'Fuck, it feels like my throat is bleeding.'

He finally skidded to a halt outside of the lab. He was almost opening the door when he stopped himself. If he went in looking like he'd run three miles, Santos and Ellie would know something was up. They were quick to catch on most of the time, and even though it was helpful in most cases, he'd be digging his own grave if he didn't keep them oblivious to what was happening. He could just hear Santos asking why he'd run all the way there, adding that there was no need to.

Taking a minute to rest, he composed himself, slowing his breathing and his heart rate until he was comfortable and sure that he'd be able to maintain cover. Then, when he was ready, he opened the door.

What he saw stopped him in his tracks.

He'd been too late.

Clarke and Carver were already stumbling into the lab, and what made Norton upset and angry was that Ellie pretty much ran to the engineer, hugging him tightly and taking some of his weight when he nearly buckled, helping him over to the wall where he could sit down and rest. There was obvious concern in her eyes as her hands flitted over his lower torso, the gunshot wound, and it seemed like the two of them were in their own little bubble as Ellie cupped Clarke's cheek in her hand, concern in her eyes.

Norton pressed his lips into a hard line, gritting his teeth against the truth of what he saw, and retreated back to the door, trying to hide himself. Nobody had noticed the sound of the door opening or even looked towards him - Santos was attending to Carver, and of course Ellie wouldn't have seen him there. Quietly, he slipped back into the hallway beyond, leaning against the wall as the door sealed away the maddening sight before his eyes.

He thoroughly ignored the ache in his chest. It would go away; he just needed some time to sort things out and make things right for him again.

Of course Ellie still cared for him, right? He was her freaking boyfriend, her current love interest, not Clarke. It was more than likely that she just wanted to make sure that one of the admittedly most important team members was all right.

Everything would turn out just fine, Norton told himself. He just needed to assume that familiar, cold, near-arrogant attitude that he'd adopted ever since he'd become a captain. If he was able to pull that off and put on his mask of uncaring confidence, essentially how he'd acted all the way through this mission, nobody would suspect a thing and he'd be golden. He'd dealt with idiots all the time in training, and this would be no different - he just had to keep them oblivious and dodge every single thing that Clarke and Carver threw his way.

He was ready.

'One breath in, one breath out, and here we go...'

ELLIE POV

"Sorry," she whispered, analyzing the grimace of pain that flashed across Isaac's face.

"It's nothing," he said, but Ellie knew him better than that. Obviously the wound hurt like hell, but he always had to be tough and feel more than he was letting on.

"I don't think it hit anything important, though," Ellie informed him, rocking back on her heels. "So when we get it out you'll be fine."

Isaac nodded, then pushed himself up so he could lean against the wall. "I'm fine now," he added unconvincingly.

Ellie rolled her eyes and looked at Santos, who had risen as well, declaring that Carver would be fine later on.

She was unsure of what to do. Norton hadn't yet come back, but - even though she would have been mortified to admit it - she was more than fine with Isaac here, with her, alive.

Just as she was about to ask Santos what to do, the door opened and nobody other than Norton walked in, his face impassive. He strode casually over to their little group, and when Ellie looked back at Isaac, she was surprised and yet not shocked at all to see the vicious glare that he was sporting, his light blue eyes practically blazing.

The engineer pushed himself against the wall hard, fighting to stand even though he'd clearly weakened now that the adrenaline of having life-threatening experiences had worn off. Even though Ellie didn't have an inkling of what was going on, something inside compelled her to assist Isaac in standing upright and she hefted his arm over her shoulders, allowing him to lean on her for support.

She could feel the clash coming, like the tension before the storm. And she waited, holding her breath, as Norton stopped before them, unable to repress the strange feeling of panic that raced through her.

"Isaac, Carver," Norton acknowledged. "We thought you were gone for sure."

Ellie felt Isaac tense up, and Carver spat, "Cut the crap, Norton. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see you didn't tell them."

"Tell us what?" Santos interjected.

"How we got separated," Isaac snapped, his eyes still trained on the EarthGov captain. "How we got these gunshot wounds."

"You... Didn't the Unitologists get you?" Ellie asked, her eyes widening as she realized what the two men were getting at. But her mind refused to believe, to accept the horrible realization that was coming at her head-on.

"Think again, Ellie," Carver said roughly, gesturing to himself and Isaac. "We didn't get these from those nutcase fanatics. Norton shot us."

Hearing it just made it all so much worse. The admission that her own boyfriend had betrayed them all stunned her, and she dropped her gaze as though the thought had tangible weight.

A black and heavy silence fell over the room as Ellie tried to think the situation through. Nothing made sense - Norton didn't seem like he would have done that, and despite all the irritating drama he'd caused, she still didn't think he would have sunk that low.

Why would he have any reason to shoot them anyways? Was there something else she and Santos didn't know about?

"No," she said quietly, irritated with her voice for being so shaky. "It can't be..."

Norton cut in, "They're lying, Ellie. Why would I do something like that?"

The familiarity of Isaac's voice didn't make what he said next any less terrible. Since she was standing right next to him, his words came across loud and clear as he said, "That's bullshit and we both know it, Norton. You betrayed us, and you made a deal with Danik to save your sorry ass."

"Stop! Just stop it!" Santos cried suddenly, her face a mask of disbelief and horror.

Ellie knew how she felt, the world spinning uncontrollably beneath her, making her dizzy with its revelations and shocking secrets.

How could Norton have betrayed them? Didn't he know how much it would hurt her? She was his girlfriend, and it hurt to know that he couldn't have at least confided in her that he didn't want to continue on instead of simply stabbing her in the back like that.

She couldn't bring herself to look at any one of the three men in the eye. She didn't know who to believe at all.

On one end of the spectrum she had Norton, her boyfriend, and she really didn't want to believe that he would just go behind her back like that. But on the other end, she had Isaac, the man who had saved her life, walked down the bloody corridors of the Sprawl with her, believed in her and trusted her even when she hadn't trusted him. Never had she thought he would lie to her, and she still didn't think he would, even now. He just wouldn't.

The real question was, who did she trust more?

NORTON POV

He could tell that Ellie was in the agony of indecision. She wouldn't look at any of them, and her two-toned gaze was still trained on the ground, her face looking hurt and confused.

It was clear she didn't know who to believe at all.

Just as he was starting to think he'd win this battle, the overhead announcement system crackled to life, bringing with it a message that would seal Norton's fate.

Cold dread crept down his back as they all heard the smooth voice of the Circle leader proclaim, "Testing. Testing. Hello, Isaac. I know you're out there... Crawling around. You probably think I'm an over zealous crusader, that I'm mindlessly following the whim of an angry god. It's an easy conclusion to draw and I don't fault you for it. But you may be surprised to know that I'm a man of science, a man of fact and reason, a man of cause and effect. And soon, you'll understand that I'm right... About everything."

When the message ended, Norton knew he couldn't escape this time.

Ellie and Isaac exchanged looks, and when Ellie just about pinned him down with her angry gaze, Norton felt trapped.

It was times like this that he wished he was deaf.

Her voice colder than he'd ever heard it, Ellie asked, "If you didn't betray us, Norton, why does Danik keep tracking Isaac down? How, exactly, does he find us all the time?"

**Hell yes, confrontation! I have to admit that I've been waiting for this for a while. **

**Part of this chapter was me dissecting Norton's thought processes. I thought I would be interesting to see how he thought things through, or how I think he does anyways. **

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you for the reviews! Now, on to some serious ass-kicking for Norton. **

**I hope you're still enjoying it as always!**

NORTON POV

A lot of difficult questions were heading his way, and he had no fucking clue how he was going to answer them and not end up in pieces at the bottom of some godforsaken cliff.

He could see them boiling in Ellie's eyes, in Santos' eyes, in the confused and angry expressions on their faces. He could also see a lot of hatred, too, and it stunned him that his entire life could turn into a train wreck just based off of one mistake. Admittedly it had been a huge mistake, but still, how could so much just go in the wrong direction?

His plans had been wrong, his judgment had been faulty, his beliefs were messed up. There was no way out this time.

Because Ellie knew, and it showed in her eyes.

She believed Clarke and Carver. She knew that he had made a deal with Danik, and as he had even said back on the Roanoke, she was pretty damn stubborn.

So there was practically no way he could even hope to escape this situation with all his body parts intact.

Ellie stared him down, her face unreadable except for the crushing anger and hate that refused to disappear. "Norton. Explain."

He cleared his throat. In his head, he was scrambling to reach something, anything, that could keep the air going in and out of his lungs longer. "Ellie," he tried, "I know you've made mistakes, too-"

"Damn right I did, when I decided to bring you along for this mission," she snapped back. "Just because we all make mistakes doesn't excuse yours."

"Jesus! Why don't you just listen to me and hear me out?" he shouted, desperation and frustration taking over.

He had to make her understand, but it really didn't seem possible anymore.

Ellie's icy composure melted away and she cried at him, "Why should I? Why should I listen to the man who betrayed my trust, who stabbed me in the back with it?"

He wanted to sink into the floor when he realized he'd done just that. Upon starting their relationship, he had promised that he would always be honest with her, that he'd never lie to her or go behind her back. But here he was, breaking all the rules.

Eyes blazing with the most righteous fury, Ellie continued, "You could have just told me you didn't want to keep going. I would have understood, but no, the great EarthGov captain thought he could deceive me with his lies! And now that I can see the truth behind them, I don't understand what ever made me choose you in the first place."

That last sentence struck a blow to his heart.

This whole thing, this mission - he didn't care about saving mankind, thinking it was pointless to try and rescue a doomed race. But to hear that his very reason for coming here was now void because of her rejection made everything seem pointless. It hurt to know that no matter what he did, he was never going to be good enough for her.

He'd wasted his time trying to fix things with Ellie. Why hadn't he seen it before? She was still clearly hung up over Clarke; she had never truly moved on and never would.

In a moment of clarity, he discovered that he was just messing with something that was meant to be, something that the universe had already set up and determined. By interfering with it and trying to break it apart, he was being punished, being given what was due because it just wasn't right to screw around with things like that.

He wasn't supposed to interfere with Ellie and Clarke. But he had, knowing full well his intentions, and fate was going to make sure he paid for his mistakes.

Then the moment was gone, and he was left with a feeling that everything was now beyond his control, that panicked, helpless feeling that he absolutely despised. It was all going downhill from there, and even though the situation was just about lower than a rock on the floor, there was no possibility of it ever getting better.

"You're a coward," he dimly heard Ellie say. It was muffled by the sound of his heart smashing to pieces and then getting stomped on and burned, and he felt emptier than he'd ever been in his life.

'So this is how you break somebody. And I thought Clarke was broken.'

But the engineer wasn't broken, because he had Ellie. While he himself was dying inside, Clarke was the one who had the girl, who had love, who had life.

Norton had never really believed in love until he met Ellie, but only now did he realize that by God, it mattered.

And he didn't have what mattered.

SANTOS POV

There was no denying that Norton betrayed them all, no excuses that he'd only been trying to help. She could even see it on his face. They all could - the blank eyes, the hopeless expression.

'Damn, he's given up?'

Santos had to admit that she'd never thought he'd give up. His tenacity was always present, his stubborn will and determination were what preceded him as an EarthGov captain, like his blunt and arrogant attitude.

She got the feeling from looking at him that he simply didn't care anymore. Ellie had given up on him - her arm was still wrapped tightly around Isaac - and she guessed that Norton was thinking, 'Why should I believe in myself when she doesn't?'

She almost rolled her eyes. There she was again, more worried about all of this drama than the mission and the fact that Danik could be right behind the door. But it seemed as though they were just frozen in time, trapped in a bubble that was separated from the rest of the universe, while trying to solve this stupid problem. Danik and the Circle were a very minor problem at the moment.

The researcher inside her fervently wanted to know why he'd betrayed them, why he had thought it was a good idea to compromise the mission for safety's sake, and she asked, "Why, Norton? What could possibly make you do this?"

His voice was flat and devoid of almost all emotion, like he was just a shell. It scared her, the way just one event could change someone forever, and she had to focus hard to listen to what he was saying.

"You know I didn't want to stay with the mission. I wanted to go home, but after the shuttle crash, I realized there was no way off the planet. So I did what I thought I had to do: I told Danik that I'd hand over Clarke if he gave us a ship to go home with."

Ellie gasped. "You little fucker," she hissed. "I can't believe you'd just go ahead and betray us all."

Norton kept going like he hadn't heard anything, continuing to surprise Santos. She'd have thought he would've fired up at that, at least glaring at Ellie or Isaac or something. But no, he had simply ignored her, which was definitely a shock. He didn't just take things without fighting back, but Santos guessed he'd changed. "Everything was fine until we were about to head to Rosetta's lab. Just when we stepped outside of the facility housing the Nexus, Danik was there, waiting. He took us hostage and was about to kill us all, right after he told Clarke and Carver that I'd made a deal with him so we could all go home. But Clarke ended up jumping Danik, and then the whole Nexus incident happened."

Santos heard Isaac mumble something, and in response she saw Ellie tighten her arm around him. She observed Norton's eyes narrow slightly, but he didn't comment on it, continuing to reveal the truth. "I was angry, thinking that Clarke was the reason everything became fucked up, and I tried to kill him. I shot him and Carver in the stomach so they wouldn't be able to come back and tell you guys that I betrayed you all." Norton smirked, some of his old attitude coming back, and said, "Looks like that came back to bite me in the end."

"It sure as hell did," Ellie retorted. "What on earth made you think that changing sides, teaming up with Danik, was excusable?"

Norton spat, "I only wanted to save you, Ellie. I wish you could understand what I sacrificed for that."

"I didn't want to go back! I wanted to stay with the goddamn mission, and you knew that. You can't just switch sides whenever you feel like it'll suit you best, Norton. You're only shooting yourself in the foot, because no matter what, somebody will find out your lies." She shook her head. "I wish I could understand, and maybe even pity you a bit, but all I'm feeling for you right now is disgust and hatred, because you weren't strong enough to keep going."

Norton's blue eyes flashed, and he took a step closer. "What? Not strong enough like Clarke?"

Ellie emphasized Isaac's first name strongly. "No, you're not like Isaac. At all."

Santos groaned internally. 'Here we go again,' she thought. It looked like Ellie and Norton were breaking ties right then.

"I've tried my best for you, Ellie!" Norton yelled, throwing his arms up in the air. "I'm the captain of the last EarthGov battalion. Don't tell me that doesn't mean anything to you - I gave up safety to go with you to this godforsaken hellhole!"

Ellie looked at him pityingly then. "I think that Santos and I would both agree that you have no authority here, Norton. Your status doesn't mean anything on this frozen wasteland."

Santos nodded, silently agreeing with her. "You don't even have a battalion. What makes you think you're better than the rest of us? We fought Necromorphs, we researched, we found the Machine. What did you do, Norton? How did you contribute to this mission?"

Norton was silent for a moment, and Santos realized that what she said had been true. He hadn't helped at all, only complained and griped about how dangerous it was and how his status saved his ungrateful ass from getting handed to him by fighting Necromorphs. He'd only helped with finding the slides of Rosetta, and that was after she'd berated him for acting so high and mighty.

"I helped find Clarke," Norton said quietly, but it was evident that he was aware of his lack of assistance with the mission.

Ellie scoffed. "Right. Because that was hard to do."

The captain was silent. Santos got the feeling that something big was going to happen soon, an event that would change their lives.

Or Norton's, at least.

NORTON POV

Looking back on it, he realized that it was true. He hadn't done much to aid with the mission - he had simply retrieved Clarke, and that wasn't hard given that the former engineer's location hadn't exactly been a secret.

So he really had no excuse for sitting around on his ass and complaining. No wonder Ellie had gotten tired of him, of his excuses, of his cowardice.

"Pathetic," Ellie muttered. "I can't believe you."

Norton found himself pleading, "Forgive me. Please."

Ellie's eyes were full of disdain and contempt. "You made a deal with Danik, tried to exchange Isaac for our safety when you knew how important this all was, sabotaged the mission, and also acted like a complete asshole. What makes you think I can forgive you?"

He had no answers for that one. He'd been hoping that maybe she'd just forgive him unconditionally, tell him he'd always been the one, but that was just a combination of his ego and his still-hopeful heart talking. He knew his heart would eventually reach a point from which there was no return, at which not even an inkling of hope could creep into it, but his guess was that he had not reached that yet, because he kept hoping for the impossible.

There was a big break coming. He could feel it - maybe he'd die, maybe Ellie would take him back. Even though the second option was a ridiculous notion, he hoped for it with all his being. Anything was better than death, anything at all.

He wondered what was going to happen next. He didn't particularly like the look in Ellie's eyes, the bright look she got when she'd just thought of something, the cold and angry expression on her face lending it a distinctly dark tone.

"Norton," she said slowly, "you're the EarthGov captain here."

He nodded, trying to grasp what she was getting at. His mind came up with nothing.

"So," she continued, "when you have traitors, what do you do with them?"

"We shoot them," he replied. Wasn't that obvious?

"Ah. I see. Well, I hate to say it, but you are most definitely a traitor." She pulled out her gun, studying it leisurely.

A combination of nausea, fear, and horror struck him like a heavy blow to the stomach, and his eyes widened at the realization. "No, no - Ellie, don't-"

"Give me one good reason not to," she snapped, aiming it towards him.

His mind was racing at a million miles an hour. He'd already outlived his usefulness; Danik would shoot him too even if he somehow managed to escape the lab. He was going to die either way.

If he was going to die, he might as well go out with a bang. Revenge was sweet, and dying would be made sweeter if he could pay that bastard back.

His hand crept to his gun as he stalled, playing for time. "That's - that's not you, Ellie. Just let me go free. I promise I'll never bother you again."

"I don't think it's a promise you can keep," Ellie replied. "So I guess this is goodbye, Norton."

"Not if it's Clarke dying!" he snarled, and whipped out his gun, aiming for the wounded engineer. It would only take one shot-

A round blasted through the air.

Almost simultaneously, a starburst of agony erupted in his throat.

He fell, clutching his neck, gazing in disbelief at the bright blood that splashed on the floor, oozing from him.

'Christ... She got me.'

He coughed, feeling the metallic taste of blood welling in his mouth, bubbling at the corners of his lips.

Ellie lowered the gun. He could see some slight horror in her eyes, but it disappeared as she said, "I'm sorry. It will always be Isaac."

As if the knowledge had weight, his head dropped back and his body slumped to the floor.

Slowly, as his life ebbed out of him, the taste of his worst mistakes filled his mouth and spilled over, dripping, bitter and completely unlike the taste of vengeance.

He expected the look on his face was that of a man who could not be trusted, and, in the end, whose lies had finally caught up to him.


End file.
